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GREEN LANTERN

I skipped this movie in the theater, and only just recently saw it on DVD. Verdict?

Two Thumbs Down.

The special effects were nice, when it came to the sequences in outer space. It was cool to see the various aliens that I’m familiar with in the comics, Tomar Re, Kilowog, Sinestro, and Abin Sur, were all voice-acted just the way I imagined they’d sound (although in the comics Abin Sur is red, not purple, but I assume they didn’t want the movie audience to think there was a connection between him and Sinestro, who is also red). I was surprised they didn’t add in Ch’p, who is basically a little talking squirrel. The planet OA looked fantastic. The training sequences with Kilowog and Sinestro were cool. But it was the scenes on Earth that fell flat.

I’m not that familiar with the villain Hector Hammond, so I can’t say whether or not they got that character right, but Hal Jordan was all wrong. Just as I suspected from the commercials I’d seen when it came out, it appeared that they were trying to somewhat copy the formula of Iron Man. But Hal Jordan is not an irresponsible playboy. As I think I may have said to y’all back when it first came out, the character of Hal Jordan is straight-laced and in control. He has to be, as a test pilot. His job is to get into brand new experimental planes and push them to their limits to see if anything will go wrong. You have to be “fearless” to do that, and be able to think clearly under extreme pressure and make split-second decisions that could save your life. In the late 70’s, he was teamed up in a comic-book with Green Arrow, as a sort of “odd couple” duo, with Green Arrow as the liberal crusader, while Green Lantern was the stereotypical conservative. So, as a comic-book reader, that was hard for me to get past what I considered to be a huge mis-characterization of Hal Jordan, although I guess that wouldn’t bother the general audience that would be unaware of that.

A big problem was also the main villain, Parallax, some kind of “fear monster”, I just couldn’t quite follow what the heck that was all about. So, overall, I couldn’t recommend it. Like I said, the effects were good, it’s impressive that they now have the technology to make the Green Lantern ring look real on screen, so I still think there’s potential. But I wouldn’t try a straight sequel with Ryan Reynolds again. If I were in charge of WB studios, I’d try to do what was done with the Hulk sequel, basically reboot it and treat it like its own movie. Get Cuba Gooding Jr. and make a movie about the John Stewart version of Green Lantern.